With one day to go, I finally broke 50,000 words.
My overwhelming emotion as I peered at my word count and discovered it was up to 50,400 was relief. As much as I enjoyed the challenge, I’m pleased not to have 1600 words hanging over me every day. I love writing; I sneak moments of clicking keyboard pleasure whenever I get the chance. I revel in made up worlds and nothing makes me happier than sharing my latest fact finding fads with people I’ve never met.
But what I don’t love is schedules. I don’t like having to do anything to a predetermined plan. I achieve my best career work on my day off, the day I’m supposed to be writing. And I create my best fiction at midnight when I need to be up for work the next morning. Committing to thirty days of ‘must complete’ has been more of a challenge than I could ever imagine. It’s a miracle I completed 27 out of 29 days ahead of the target line.
The first 10,000 words were the easiest with the last 10,000 by far the hardest. I started in a blur of excitement and enthusiasm; I ended finding any excuse to not write. Once I got into the story the words would flow but it started to take me longer and longer to open the document.
So where am I with my novel? Twenty five chapters in with another ten loosely mapped out ready to write. I say loosely as I’ve rewritten the structure at least once a week so far. Another 30,000 words to make the finished first draft 80,000 would be great. This week I wrote 15,000 so technically I could finish in two weeks. That’s not going to happen. Instead I’m going to revel in having no writing targets to meet and watch lots of television, that and start my massively overdue planning for Christmas.
I spent today flicking through what I’d written and apart from countless sentences back to front and the use of the same word ten times in the same paragraph, I’ve not done badly. Is it just me who becomes possessed by Yoda once the laptop flips up or do other writers struggle here too? After some hard editing and ‘look at how clever I am’ fact killing, I’m pretty sure I’ll have something I’m happy with.
Is there a market for 1930s American teenagers who join runaway Priests to live in the Arctic? I have a feeling I’ve answered my own question there. How can I explain all the themes and plot turns in a pitch? Where will it sit on the bookseller’s shelf? At this point you’ll need to imagine a shrugging thirty something woman with hair a month overdue for a trim due to overzealous word production. Maybe you’ll hear more from Martha and Girl Tell it on the Mountain, but maybe you won’t. Whatever becomes of my NaNoWriMo 2014 novel, I’ve enjoyed the sleigh ride. I hope you have too.
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Well done.
Success is dependent on effort - Sophocles
Hi KG.
Well done for getting so far. I'm intrigued - is this the boy who runs away to get to the bottom of why polar bears don't eat penguins? This has puzzled womankind since the dawn of creation, and begs an answer.
And never mind about Yoda. He's just Kermit the frog in an overcoat. But then Kermit had no ears, did he? Another question; why doesn't Yoda eat Kermit, or vice versa.
You can by now see why I didn't attempt nanowrimo. It's for clever creative people like yourself.
Well done, and keep on doing your stuff. You've been an example to those of us more lazy than your good self.
Cheers,
PabloJ.
'Is there a market for 1930s American teenagers who join runaway priests to live in the Arctic?'
Well, I don't know if the publishing world will think it has mass appeal, but it's got me intrigued!